NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

Conference and Workshop Fund

The Astrobiology Program supports workshops and other meetings of its members and the broader scientific community that will advance program objectives. These include, but are not limited to, the integration of astrobiology research, mission planning, the coordination of field expeditions, international or inter-agency collaboration, training in astrobiology, or support of Education and Public Outreach. This opportunity serves as an additional mechanism for expanding the overall community of astrobiology, attracting new students, and for advancing the specific strategic goals and objectives of the program. Requests for support are accepted on an on-going basis.

Requests for conference and workshop support should be sent to NAI Deputy Director Dr. Edward Goolish; Email: Edward.M.Goolish@nasa.gov.

Activities supported by this fund include:

2011

• March 7 – March 9, 2011 — Microbiology of the marine deep sediment biosphere Dark Energy Biosphere, 2nd in series of 5, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC, organized by Matt Schrenk, Andreas Teske, Jen Biddle
• January 30 – February 4, 2011 — Gordon Research Conference – Geobiology, Ventura, CA organized by Nora Noffke and John Stolz

2010

• July 18 – 25, 2010 38th COSPAR Assembly — The NAI supported the participation of US astrobiologists at the meeting to be held in Bremen, Germany.
• July 5 – July 13, 2010 — Asia Oceania Geosciences Society 2010 meeting
  Methane lakes on Titan, Hyderabad, India Bishun Khare
• June 14 – 18, 2010 — The NAI provided funding for US student participation in the 2010 Astrobiology Graduate Student Conference (AbGradCon), Tallberg, Sweden, organized by Eva Steeuken
• June 13 – 18, 2010 — The NAI co-sponsored the Gordon Research Conference on Environmental Bioinorganic Chemistry, organized by Ariel Anbar and Rachel Narehood Austin, Newport; Rhode Island.
• May 21- May 23, 2010 — SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology Field Conference
  Microbial Mats in Sandy Deposits Archean to Today, Denver, CO, organized by Nora Noffke
• The NAI supported a series of four Virtual Workshops on the Study of Intelligence in Astrobiology, organized by Lori Marino and Kathryn Denning.
• January 9 – 15, 2010 — The NAI co-sponsored the 2010 Gordon Research Conference and Graduate Research Seminar on the Origin of Life, organized by H. James Cleaves; Galveston, TX

2009

• Fall 2009 – 2010 Johns Hopkins University Astrobiology Seminar Series, organized by Jocelyne DiRuggiero and Luann Becker
• August 16 – 20. 2009 – A session at the American Chemical Society National Meeting, entitled Astrochemistry: Chemistry of the Planets, Interstellar Dust and Beyond, organized by Gozen Ertem; Washington, DC

2008

• An Origins of Life symposium at the annual meeting of the Japanese
  Geochemical Society, at the University of Tokyo, September 2008.
• A session at the 2008 Gordon Research Conference on the Molecular Basis Of
  Microbial One-Carbon Metabolism, July 2008, Bates College, in Lewiston,
  Maine, organized by Stephen Ragsdale.
• Participation in the Cool Stars 15 Workshop at the University of St.
  Andrews, Scotland from July 2008, organized by Aleks Scholz.
• Speakers and student attendance for an astrobiology session at the Third
  International Conference on Polar and Alpine Microbiology, in Banff,
  Alberta, Canada, May 2008, organized by Jody Deming.
• A session on Clay Minerals and Biomolecules at the joint American Chemical
  Society and Clay Minerals Society meeting in April 2008, in New Orleans,
  organized by Gozen Ertem.

2007

• American Astronomical Society, January 2007, Seattle , WA , “Formation and Detection of Habitable Planets”, organized by Nader Haghighipour.

2006

• 2006 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 11-15 December, 2006, in San Francisco , CA “Biofilms in the Environment: Adaptive Roles, Microbe-mineral Interfaces, and Contributions to Global Biogeochemical Cycles”, Organized by D’Arcy Meyer-Dombard and Matt Schrenk.
• Geological Society of America, October 2006, in Philadelphia, PA, “Changes in Ocean and Atmospheric Redox State and the Evolution of Life”, organized by Andrey Bekker and Ganqing Jiang.
• International Symposium on Microbial Ecology, August 2006, in Vienna, Austria . “Life in Extreme Environments and Astrobiology”, organized by Frank Robb.